Summary: The deck uses the power of the high-cost, high-power emerging Eldrazi to create assymetrical plays. It's primarily a test bed for various little combos.

Great game: Big Eldrazi on field by turn 4, combine answers and shenanigans to punish the opponent.Okay game: Plays out like a grindy control deck that succeeds only because of all the answers.Awful games: I ever mulligan out of a hand with 2 lands that also has Telling Time. Also sometimes has trouble with WB life drain. Also I had 2 games where I failed to see any of my Eldrazi lul wut.

Tested between ranks 7-18 (not in a row). Across its various tweaks, I won 14 games, lost 10.

Non-rank-40 person here, I took this bait.I tried to retune this into something that 1) looked up answers, 2) kept scraping off the field with said answers, 3) had gearhulks, 4) sometimes could copy gearhulks.I've played 6 games with it in the 10-something ranks, won 4. Lost one game due to getting over 20 cards deep and not one sweeper sadface.

----------------------------------- Grixis Emerge Update ---I retooled it to incorporate Insolent Neonate and Incorrigible Youths as additional cheated fat/emerge fodder. Deck ended up having no room for Murder-style "point-and-kill" answers so it has too many silly weaknesses. I may mess with it some more later.

Been working pretty well so far. Even with the tight mana requirements on a lot of the stuff it generally isn't too much of a problem. Hitting the colors we need early for Push/Lightning/TT/ baby Jace hasn't been a problem so far. Hitting for T3 Liliana or T4 sweepers hasn't been too difficult to accomplish most of the time either.

I can't believe it took me this long to start messing with Dark Intimations. The card is just flat out value town and many games end up being won by abusing PW's with Dark Intimations to just bury your opponents in value.

Currently Spell Shrivel is the card I am most iffy on. The deck can generally answer creatures and PW's all day long but has a limited number of answers to non-creature artifacts and enchantments. Spell Shrivel helps to shore up that weakness while also acting as a catchall answer to certain other annoying threats (Plated Crusher, Ulamog, etc) and being removal protection for yours threats. On the other hand, the fact that Spell Shrivel does nothing to answer a threat that is already on the table can be very annoying, especially with the limited number of counterspells the deck runs to shore up that particular weakness.

I really hope that Almond Cat gives us some tri-lands, because this deck would absolutely love to splash white (which would open up Nahiri, Sorin, Anguished Unmaking, Blessed Alliance, artifact/enchantment removal, etc).

I would consider adding Insidious Will. If there is a deck that can use it as something other than only a counterspell, it's this one (copying Take Inventory/Cathartic Reunion mainly). It's definitely better than Spell Shrivel here IMO.I'm very confident the deck wants the second Pull from Tomorrow.Finally, Commit // Memory and Thing in the Ice could be worth having a look at.

I'm not sure about my position here, but I think Fevered Visions is not a good card right now; the symmetrical draw effect benefits your opponent too much and you don't really care about the damage done to them.Not sure about Oath of Jace; it just feels like a one mana more expensive Cathartic Reunion in your shell. Soure, there's shenanigans with Disperse, but I doubt these are worth it.Finally, I'm not sure whether you need 4 sweepers; if you think you do I'd strongly consider Yahenni's Expertise or Baral's Expertise over Languish. Playing one of your carddraw spells or your Tutelages for free is too good to pass up IMO.

Regarding the manabase, you want the fourth Evolving Wilds before you want the first Fumarole IMO; and I'd cut one Basic each for the second Sunken Hollow and both copies of Smoldering Marsh. If you decide to cut Languish and not add Yahenni's Expertise, you can also consider running Jace, Unraveler of Secrets over Ob Nixilis, which would allow you to cut an additional Swamp.

If someone is still playing Magic Duels, I would ask you for help to build a decent and competitive Grixis Burn deck. Notice I said Grixis Burn, not Grixis Control. The idea is to use different cards I usually play in control decks and I am a bit tired of them. This is the best decklist I have at this moment:

I would like to play Geistblast and Insult / Injury for the first time, but I need to "optimize" this deck to make it more competitive. I only played some games against AI, I can't play in versus because I am not sure about how will perform. Ideas / suggestions?

I’d consider running Renegade Map in place of some lands. They compare to Evolving Wilds. Some trade off in needing to pay (1) to get them out, but they fix when you need it and make Unlicensed Disintegration better when you don’t. Also works to thin your deck a bit (flooding with this type of list is lethal) - I have a rakdos burn list that runs them - not unusual to crack one to bring a land to hand that I can pitch to Cathartic Reunion or Lightning Axe (really helpful when you draw those spells in top deck mode). I get a bit of extra mileage from them by running Abbot of Keral Keep for prowess trigger and cheap surge trigger on Fall of the Titans, but I think they’d be good in your list that needs 3 colors and wants more ways to trigger Disintegration’s damage clause.

I’d only run 1 or 2 Geistblasts at most for the memes. I don’t think it’s that good outside big mana decks like geistramp. 3 mana for 2 damage just isn’t good enough for this style of burn deck imo. Same with insult // injury. You’re in a creature light deck so you can’t expect good value for 3 mana. Realistically, in this deck it’s a 6+ mana spell that’s doubling one additional spell if you’re lucky. If really wanting to run it for fun value, I’d consider Thermo-Alchemist so you can get more damage out of it when casting. Hungry Flames prob offers more practical value than geist or insult here, but I don’t even think that is amazing.

There are still people playing Magic Duels! Thank you for your reply. I will replace Thing in the ice with Thermo-Alchemist because as I said, I am tired of playing the same cards, I am using Thing in the ice in my Grixis Control and Jeskai Control decks yet. I cut Geistblast to 2 copies instead of 3 but I still have 2 copies of Insult // Injury. I really like both cards, but I feel they are pretty mana costly for a deck of this nature. Should I consider to cut to just 1 copy for any of those cards? which one?

Another interesting fact I forgot to mention is that there is a Madness subtheme in this deck. I think madness is very mana efficient and I would like to take the most advantage possible of it.

I built your list to see how it works before talking any more about changes. Only changes I made to the original were -2 Evolving Wilds, -3 Hubs, +1 Smoldering Marsh, +4 Renegade Map. Figured your energy subtheme wasn’t strong enough to justify hubs. Only way to refill is the 2 towers, but that better spent activating the tower. More important to have colors fixed and support Disintegrations. Went with Marsh over keeping a single Wilds since maps address color fixing blue and the Marsh will enter play untapped sometimes.

Tested 4 games. 1st game vs BG midrange I landed Chandra T4 and protected her with burn spells till she ultimated. 2nd game vs mono green stompy I lost to flood - no sweeper effects and only 2 creatures that can reasonably block makes flooding particularly brutal. 3rd game vs Rakdos Aggro I got tower in play and flipped TITI with Insult // Injury, hit for 14 and tapped tower to deal the last 6. I had been doubting Tower (feel it’s more a control deck win con than a card that should be in a burn deck - it’s on the slow side and your 3 mana spells in a burn deck should offer something when you cast them), insult // injury (feel it’s better for a deck with more creatures - a la gruul stompy or rakdos aggro), and TITI (good when it flips but offers no damage output before then), but the 3 cards were beautiful and fun this game so I see why you had them in. 4th game vs simic something (?) I won to opponents land screw.

In 2 of the games, the maps allowed Unlicensed Disintegration to burn face. In another, tower did the trick (in the flood loss game I never drew it). I think maps are right for the deck. No games punished me for running fewer total lands in place of them (happy to have in opening hand since not a lot to do T1 or T2).

Geistblast had a couple moments. I copied Alms of the Vein in one game for a respectable life swing, and Catalog in another. The catalog play probably won me that game. I was pretty even with opp, and drawing 4 cards let me trade a couple lands I didn’t need for more gas. I’d still cut that down to 1 or 2 copies tho. I’d never played with Catalog before. I don’t love that it costs 3, but instant speed discard has some value here. 2 copies prob ok.

Avacyn’s Judgment underperformed. It’s expensive to madness a significant amount of damage (no free discard effects, most costing 2+, meaning it doesn’t get better than baseline until you’re 6+ mana (5+ off the axe). I used it as a 2 mana spell a couple times, but couldn’t get madness value off it. Even at 5 (axe), 6 (reunion), or 7 (catalog) mana, you’re only getting 3 damage over 2 for the effort. Thinking this card slot could be better served by something else.

Early thoughts are - do maps change, lower curve if possible. Real glut of 3 mana spells, and all the fun stuff (geistcasting, insulting, judgmenting, etc) costs a lot of mana. If opp playing Aggro and drops creatures T1-3, hard to stabilize with almost all spells trading 1 for 1, two 0/4 creatures, and the bulk of your spells costing 3 mana with several not immediately improving your board state. Need to get some more games in tho.

Idea is fun. I reeeeaaally enjoyed that game I won with big insult//injury play. I don’t think it’s a bad deck, but see why you’re looking to improve as it does have some notable weaknesses.

Got some more games in. Went 2-2, with another loss to flood (stupid since I’m at 19 land with 4 maps and lost 2 of 8 games to flooding out) and a loss to mono white aggro that was on the play and dropped creatures every turn. Unless you have TITI in opening hand, I don’t know how this deck ever beats a good aggro deck. You have essentially nothing to block with, your spells trade 1-1 (save for a Christmas cast Judgment late game), and you have few ways to kill things before T3. If opp is dropping creatures every turn you just can’t keep up.

I’ll test more over the weekend. The deck does some fun stuff. Much as I poo-poo’d insult//injury and geistblast (and Tower), I can see why you were running them. They make for some really fun plays and spectacular turns. If you don’t want to lose that aspect and just accept the trade off that some matchups will basically be auto loses, then the only change I’d make is the trade of lands for maps. They’ve mattered in over 50% of games I played, turning on Disintegration before I’ve found a tower. If you want to spike it out, you should prob put in thermo-alchemists in alongside TITI to help survive aggro and put a constant source of damage on board to ping when your burn has to point at creatures. Prob should also work in 6 mana Chandra for emergency sweeper effect.

I gave up on going to Rank 40. I finally end up playing Duels for fun, too much stress for me to try reaching Rank 40, and I am only able to set up a position between 32 and 37. Moreover, I was only playing 4 or 5 decks and got bored. Currently I have 30 decks, the maximum, and all cards of the game. Those are all my decks:

*Edited: You were right, I needed to add Chandra, Flamecaller because can do lots of things in this deck: (1) put 2 3/1 elementals that would double the damage with Insult // Injury, (2) discard your hand, that can trigger madness effects, (3) efficient massive removal. I think Chandra is better than Radiant Flames.

Re: big Chandra in your burn list - I agree. I think that’s a good add. I run her in my Rakdos burn list for all the positive reasons you mentioned (I don’t run insult, but get extra elementals damage off Embermaw Hellions, which also pair extremely well with Thermo-Alchemists).

I gave up on going to Rank 40. I finally end up playing Duels for fun, too much stress for me to try reaching Rank 40, and I am only able to set up a position between 32 and 37. Moreover, I was only playing 4 or 5 decks and got bored. Currently I have 30 decks, the maximum, and all cards of the game. Those are all my decks:

I recently made a UGBW version based off his control and mana fixing template on that deck. I really wanted to use some of the U walkers in a superfriends build. Gave up Chandras, her Oath, Nahiri, and Arlinn - but gained a ton of scry and card draw. I actually like the U version more. Problems with LVDs version I find are the sometimes clunky hands with a T2 Chandra Oath and T3 or T4 sweeper. I want to be mana efficient but it’s wasteful when a sweeper is coming in a turn or two. Also floods are difficult to power through. Nahiri and Ajani are basically all you have to deal with that. The U version adds scry effects to help with that. If it’s not a better superfriends deck, it’s at least a comparable alternative.

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